I am an Ultra-Conservative, Alpha-Male, True Authentic Leader, Type "C" Personality, who is very active in my community; whether it is donating time, clothes or money for Project Concern or going to Common Council meetings and voicing my opinions. As a blogger, I intend to provide a different viewpoint "The way I see it!" on various world, national and local issues with a few helpful tips & tidbits sprinkled in.

This last weekend, I heard something that was not exactly the truth but a revisionist who is a politician (Cudahy Mayor Day) hoping to get re-elected (fudging) and he was caught off guard when talking to another elected official (Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski) about Wal-Mart.

As I have said, I am NOT pro-Wal-Mart, but pro-development and know big box has a role.I am also NOT anti-Wal-Mart as people should be able to shop where they want, where they find the prices they are willing to pay, and where they find the items they want to buy.

Let’s take a trip back down memory lane and remember everyone has a photographic memory, just some people never had film in the camera.

We need to first remember why Wal-Mart said NO to the Pennsylvania and Layton site in the first place.

They turned down that site because it was once a Milwaukee City dump that Cudahy received in a land swap with land on College next to the airport, this former Milwaukee City dump that Cudahy now has soft contaminated fill.When Wal-Mart did an engineering survey they found that to allow for a heavy building such as theirs it would take a choice between two different very costly options/fixes.

The first one would have been to remove the contaminated land take it offsite to be cleaned and blended with much firmer soil.Then the new blended soil with have to be super compacted and allowed to settle for a few years otherwise the floor would crack as the land settles.

The second option was about 10 to 20 concrete pylons would have to be driven deep into the ground for the store floor to sit on.This would add about 10 Million dollars to the cost of the store.

Wal-Mart also has an issue with the State DOT not allowing a frontage road and the Layton bridge be changed to have a lane turn onto the frontage road.

So that land would not work for Wal-Mart and as we fast forward to 2010-2011 Mayor Day still was pushing that land on Wal-Mart.

Why you ask?

Because he didn’t want the Wal-Mart in Cudahy in the first place and this was a way to make that happen and have an out when telling people why they didn’t come to Cudahy.He just is NOT telling people the information what Wal-Mart found in 2007/2008.

Omission of facts and truth is a lie and spin.

Now onto the Iceport land and Wal-Mart circa 2007-2009

If you recall the Cudahy Comprehensive 2010 plan had a condition on it that if something was built on the Iceport it had to include a destination construction.That condition is what originally led to the Iceport in the first place.

So when the developer Continental looked at developing the land they wanted Wal-Mart who was interested in coming to Cudahy after they in 2006/2007 looked at the Pennsylvania and Layton site and said NO.Given the special condition and the Plan Commission, CDA, Common Council and Mayor McCue not allowing (which they could) the Cudahy Comprehensive 2010 plan to be flexible and not have a destination condition attached to development to it, they came up with a Soccer Field Wave Center that doubled as a Convention Center.Now if we delve deeper the Cudahy Comprehensive 2000 plan called for a Soccer Field on that land as a destination as that condition was in it as well, but the Iceport Ice Rink was chosen instead.

Continental’s plan with Wal-Mart and the Wave could not be separated at the time first without City approval by flexing on the Cudahy Comprehensive 2010 destination need which they would not.Some people wanted just the Wave and some people wanted just the Wal-Mart.

The Wave Center would have been used by Cudahy students and would have been a convention center.Yes, it is true that 6 months after the complex was said NO, the Wave filed for reorganization.Yes, the Wave Center was asking at first for 10 Million taxpayer dollars, then 8 Million and later 6 Million as changes were made to reduce construction costs, but if the Wave defaulting on anything or went bankrupt the land and building would be the cities.

So let’s now go to the dirty part that Mayor Day left out.Once Continental was turned down to withdrew the land purchase agreement, any new developer was free to talk to Wal-Mart and build on the Iceport land without the Wave center being attached to the project.

The City of Cudahy took control and ownership of the Iceport land and could have talked to Wal-Mart if they chose, but they didn’t.

I personally had many talks with Lisa Nelson of Wal-Mart and Mayor Day on Wal-Mart.Mayor Day wanted Wal-Mart to publicly contact him and given how Wal-Mart was treated during Mayor McCue’s administration, Wal-Mart wanted Mayor Day’s administration to make the public move and repair things.He would NOT.

Mayor Day also kept telling Wal-Mart it is the Pennsylvania and Layton site or nothing else.

He did this again because he didn’t want Wal-Mart in Cudahy anyways and needed an out that didn’t make him look so bad, unless the people knew all of this information.

Wal-Mart saw Cudahy’s Economic Development Director Brian Biernat’s hiring as a positive as they worked with him in the Grafton area Wal-Mart and he understand the big box need for a city.

None of this is new, I blogged about all of this over the years.

You will also remember I was critical of Wal-Mart using taxpayer’s money in building the South Milwaukee store which opens April 10, 2013.

Oh, if you talk to Mayor Day he will give you that I am lying, but then again you can contact Lisa Nelson of Wal-Mart for their side and see it match what I tell you and NOT Mayor Day’s history revision and detail omission!

Oh, I did send this to Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski so he had the correct info and timelines.

One final thing, I find it ironic and funny that during the February 5, 2013 Common Council meeting where Cudahy’s Economic Development Director Brian Biernat gave the Council and public in attendance an update on the Packard Plaza Mall he stated that hopefully with the increased traffic from the South Milwaukee Wal-Mart, business will pick up on Packard Ave and maybe people would rent/lease the vacancies in the Packard Plaza Mall.

Yep, now Cudahy is hoping Wal-Mart is to the rescue!

Increasing traffic!!!!

Increasing Cudahy’s exposer to people spending money!!!

WOW!!

We could have had Wal-Mart in Cudahy in the first place!

Now we are hoping for castoffs, for scraps, seconds because Mayor McCue and Mayor Day could not overlook their own personal feelings for Wal-Mart and big box in general.

Wal-Mart was coming to our area, if it was Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Saint Francis, or Bay View, they were coming.Oh that order was the order of the site maps I saw from Wal-Mart in 2008 they were labeled A, B, C, and D respectively.Then again, Mayor McCue and Mayor Day told us none of the other communities were interested nor was Wal-Mart.Wal-Mart was going to come back begging!Oh how wrong they were, weren’t they?

Questions for you!

Do you think as people are driving east on College when they come to Packard/Chicago Ave are they going to turn right or turn left?

Is Cudahy going to be on the wrong side of the street?

Oh, people, think about how Day was on Wal-Mart in the 2010 election going after McCue for the police officers Wal-Mart offered to pay for (2 for 5 years or 1 for 10 years) and bringing Wal-Mart to a City Wide referendum (just watch the Mayoral debate from 2010 Kelly Center it should still be on youtube).What happen too that person?

This site uses Facebook comments to make it easier for you to contribute. If you see a comment you would like to flag for spam or abuse, click the "x" in the upper right of it. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use.